Well.. felt like quiting this challenge this morning, allergies to who knows what, probably the washing

powder am thinking at this point have me going mad

with itchy eyes, nose and throat instead of sleeping.

So I took my sorry self down to the beach for a gorgeous dose of sunshine … This is a piece I said I started yesterday.., is on water colour paper.. I put some kind of white wash over it today (in progress still) and then . . .turned my attention to a very coloured square canvas

that was begging for something on it. It's not quite finished.. but my time in the studio is pretty much

done til Monday … I'll take a notebook and pen or something to keep 'something' creative being done

each day… gawd.. I've come this far I HAVE to

complete this challenge for my own self satisfaction!

… Just How Tall Are Those Effen Poppies? is my current working title for this one. I've had one hellova battle today getting myself out of a funk… so this freakin well saved my life with it's ENERGY that came through only after hours and hours of NOT.

artjournal today… venting on the page first… then colour over the top… then.. played with a wet brush with white and this being kindof arrived… as they do.. I guess.

﻿on a Friday 17 years ago today we got the bitter and very twisted news that our sister had been killed.. it was an horrific tragedy that has had an irrevocable impact on her children. I guess I reached acceptance many years ago.. but remembrance is deeper.. and has a sacredness to it.﻿

top left came after bottom right… same page… it seems to be changing to more angular.. masculine.. but probably not finished.

A bit of a melancholy start to my day.. pondering how it would have been my sisters 58th birthday (she died in '97) … and having a go with the loose style I've learned a bit from Misty Mawn.. so I keep trying it in my art journal.. funny how I can be much more free on the page sometimes…. maybe because it's not 'fraught with added expectations' . .. and as an astute artist I met said… "oh.. and you can hide it". Day 14… and I am still keen to keep this thing going.. and w a n t t o f r e e u p s o m e m o r e

Nooo.. I've almost got 'nothing to show' for today… sigh… I just did a bit of work on computer.. and 'wondering allowed' on yesterdays journal page. The result was quite helpful and profound to me… I am just LOVING the look in this woman's eyes.. and it occurred to me how well these figures can encompass how I am feeling sometimes.. and also the ongoing benefit and self care gift to myself that art-journaling continues to be.

Is this my 'poor neglected blog' .. or just been waiting til I had something artful to say. I have another blog space I use for my 'anything-i-want-to-say-at-all' wonderings… (A Sip of My Tea . com) but I think I've designated this one to be … just art… as it's on my 'Artist website' … allowing for a variety of personality options is also fun for me :)

So today… I am sharing something that began yesterday… and I desire to bring in through all of June… and I'm not promising anything further than that, it only creates too much angst for me. I am joining in a little collective project, thanks to one of the lovely artists I met in Christchurch New Zealand earlier this month. Ruth Reid is instumental in the creative project called JOIN US IN JUNE FOR 30:30 that's a link to the facebook page. The idea is to create something each day for the 30 days of June. Anything… a painting, a page, a cake, a quilt square… anything creative … I'm going to focus on painting, whether that is large or small, or in my art journal, anything so long as I paint every day in June, and try my best to complete something every day in June too.

"Create something each day for the 30 days of June"

So… why do I think it takes courage to create?Well it's one of my primary ways of expressing myself - and thereby there has been many 'strings' I have attached to it for some years… but THIS WEEK… thanks to a dear friend I had some help, clearing some of those attachments that no longer serve me, and this allowed me a way in that was seemingly difficult / nigh impossible for me to bridge before. I can tell the truth loudly in the pages of my art journal, but to be loud and open on my canvas (when the need arises, inside of myself that is) maybe for the world to see.. feel.. judge… can take courage. The thing (think / thought) I have to remember :It doesn't matter what other people think of me …It matters what I think of me.

It matters what you think of you.

So… here's what happened yesterday… when I asked for couage to create inside just this one day (taking it one day at a time was also very sage wisdom from my healing session the other day) thanks whole heartedly to you Raelene Byrne. (Medicine for your Spirit)

I love the difference it made when I opened her eyes… that took courage from her too. We're a team.. 'my wise inner self, my artist self, inner child, muse… ' it's take a bunch.

This painting will be going to an exhibition in Brisbane in June 'Celebration of the Female Form' you can find out about tickets to that here.

That's it for today… I better be off, to gather the 'Courage to create inside this one day'.

Books I Love

“There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.” - Anais Nin